Sun Feb 16
7.00pm , 3.30pm
7.00pm , 3.30pm
Heroic Purgatory
film
Eros + Massacre
This event took place Feb 15 - Feb 16, 2020
$13 General Admission
$10 Student/Child/Senior
$7 Member
Yoshishige Yoshida
Japan
1969
2h 45m
About
** Introduction by program curator Aaron Dean! **
The work of Kiju Yoshida is one of Japanese cinema’s obscure pleasures. A contemporary of Nagisa Oshima (Death by Hanging, In the Realm of the Senses) and Masahiro Shinoda (Pale Flower, Assassination), Yoshida made his directorial debut at age 27. In the decades that followed he produced more than 20 features and documentaries, yet each and every one has proven difficult to see in the English-speaking world — until now.
Eros + Massacre tells the parallel stories of early 20th-century anarchist (and free love advocate) Sakae Osugi and a pair of student activists. Their stories interact and intertwine, resulting in a complex, rewarding work.
Description and images courtesy of AGFA.
“A monumental work, a deeply challenging and sprawling work that unfurls with gusto. Things start to get interesting as the time periods appear to converge, with characters from the ‘10s/’20s strand fleetingly transposed to late-’60s Tokyo, as if them being discussed by the students had the ability to literally bring past into present. Something that can be enjoyed by all, however, is the film’s ravishing and often indulgent style, with Yoshida making full use of his scoped monochrome framing by regularly trapping his actors in the corners and edges of shots, slicing up their bodies or eye lines in interesting ways, or isolating them within doorways or window openings.
Eros + Massacre requires a certain degree of awareness of the socio-political concerns of the time for full comprehension, but the rewards are massive for those willing to put in the work; not to mention that it’s exquisitely presented and, in spite of its difficulties, perhaps still stands as Japan’s quintessential arthouse film. Yoshida would continue his intersecting of the themes of political and romantic radicalism in his loosely related follow-up works Heroic Purgatory and Coup d’état.” – Mark Player, Electric Sheep
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大島渚（絞死刑、愛のコリーダ）や篠田正浩（乾いた花、暗殺）と同時代に吉田は27歳で監督デビューを果たす。その後の数十年間にわたり２０作品以上を制作したが、そのどれもが英語圏で見るのは難しいと証明されている。
エロス＋虐殺は２０世紀初期の無政府主義者（さらに自由恋愛擁護者）である大杉栄と二人の学生活動家のパラレルストーリーである。彼らの物語は相互に作用しあい、複雑で価値のある作品となった。
喜びを広げるとても挑戦的で壮大な作品、“金字塔”である。1910年代と20年代のキャラクターが60年代後半の東京にタイムトラベルすることで時代が混在し、まるでその学生らが文字通り過去を現在に持ち込む能力があると言われるところから物語が面白くなりだします。魅力的で時々寛容な吉田氏のモノクロフレームの俳優を角や傍に常に配置したり、独特な方法で体やアイラインを切り取り撮影方法はすべての人に楽しんでもらえるところです。
エロス＋虐殺を完全に理解するためには当時の社会政治的懸念に対するある程度の認識を要するが、映画作品に加わりたい人にとっては膨大な意味を持ちます；絶妙に提示されていることは言うまでもありません、そしてその難しさにもかかわらず、いまだに日本の典型的な単館映画として君臨しているだろう。吉田氏は政治急進主義とロマンティック急進主義の交差を次の関連作品である煉獄エロイカで続けるだろう。
